Dan Zamfir co-founded OSRC, the Occupational Stress Response Collective, with Kelli Nicholson, two clinicians dedicated to the mental health of first responders and their families.
OSRC partners with first responder organizations, police services, fire departments, paramedic services, and community organizations, to build, formalize, and sustain peer support programs with the clinical oversight that makes them safe, credible, and effective. Through this partnership, Dan and Kelli focus on the development and sustainability of peer support teams for frontline workers, alongside critical incident response and clinical supervision.
The goal isn't to replace peer teams. It's to stand behind them, so the people offering support are trained, supported, and not carrying it alone.
First responders carry a mental-health burden that most workplaces never see. The need for structured, properly supported peer programs is not abstract. It shows up in the data on the people who do this work:
Peer support reaches people that clinical services often can't, early, informally, and from someone who has stood in the same boots. A well-built peer team is frequently the bridge that gets a struggling member to the help they need.
Dan and Kelli use a three-phase model so peer support is built to last. Not stood up once and left to fade.
Establish the peer team, define its purpose and scope, and train members in psychological first aid and the limits of the peer role. Build the culture and trust the program will rest on.
Formalize how support is activated, clear protocols for reaching out, responding to critical incidents, and referring members to professional care when it's needed.
Ongoing clinical supervision, refreshers, and check-ins that protect peer supporters from burnout and keep the program effective year after year.
Building and formalizing peer support structures that fit the culture and pace of emergency services.
Ongoing clinical oversight that keeps peer programs safe, credible, and sustainable over time.
Support and debriefing structures for teams in the aftermath of difficult calls and events, with CISM availability.
Tailored sessions on stress management, resilience, vicarious trauma, leadership wellness, and suicide-prevention training such as ASIST.
Peer support works, but research consistently shows its effectiveness depends on appropriate clinical oversight. Peer supporters are not clinicians, and best-practice standards are clear that they must work within a defined scope of practice and refer to professional care when appropriate.
The U.S. Department of Justice recommends that every peer support program include a licensed mental-health professional as a clinical director or advisor, and the Peer Technical Assistance Center identifies regular clinical supervision as a crucial component that improves outcomes and protects peer supporters from vicarious trauma and burnout. Without that oversight, peer supporters risk drifting into quasi-clinical roles that exceed their training, creating ethical and safety risks for the very people they're trying to help.
Clinical oversight isn't a bureaucratic add-on. It's a defining feature of evidence-based peer support. Programs that build in clinical supervision are better positioned to ensure quality care, protect their peer supporters, and deliver real outcomes for frontline personnel.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (2019); National Association of Peer Supporters (2019); Peer Technical Assistance Center (2024); Carleton et al., Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (2018).
If your organization wants to build or strengthen its peer support program, OSRC can help. Visit osrc.ca to learn more, or reach out through Henley Psychotherapy and we'll connect you.
Visit osrc.caLooking for one-on-one therapy rather than organizational peer support? See therapy for first responders.